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Live Review
by SashaS
23-8-2001
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| Macy Gray |
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Live: Macy Gray
Old Vic Theatre, London
Wednesday, August 22, 2001
The lady with funk, soul, show-power but terrible dress sense…
Billed as 'IntiMacy' it was the showcase where the idiosyncratic soulster named Macy Gray presented her new album 'The Id' in its entirety. Well, it took some time to get to it and then, it didn't get intimate. The crowd of competition winners, record company emloyees, BBC people (who were taping it all for a later broadcast) and selected media bods, had to wait almost an hour for the lady to appear.
When she did it was a brief 'Sorry to be late' before her 15-person-band used their underwear to 'moon' at us 'I-n-t-r-o-d-u-c-i-n-g' and then 'T-h-e I-d'. Let me digress here to explain, if you are not au fait with Siggy Freud, it is to do with you true, inner, secret self, an ID of anima but not an acronym for real identification.
Before we look at the music, there is a small matter of her fashion choice for the occasion: it was the most ludicrous ensemble that must have been inspired by an Arabic child's outfit circa XIV century. No kidding, so hideous that she should get the award for the Year's Worst Dresser right on. Few changes later, it was still the height of kitsch... (Enough - Fash. Ed.)
The music for this album has been produced by none other but Rick Ruben - better known for his Heavy Metal and hip-hop studio wizardry - that hasn't taken away much from her sound. 'The Id' is Gray going deeper into her own secret innards. Augmented by a band, all attired as if ready for extra-duty on the original 'Shaft' flicks, so huge that it can hardly find room on these boards the greats of British acting walked.
The lady didn't talk much between songs, wasn't displaying her wacky self and appeared to be a gear short for pedal-to-the-metal we are used to get from her. But when it cooked, there was no preventing boiling over, from the opening 'Relating To a Psychopath' via 'Sexual Revolution' to 'Oblivion'... These were the moments that touched on the hollowed ground of Prince and neared to the funk-killers Sly And The Family Stone used to drop almost 30 years ago.
Tonight's programme lacked on 'IntiMacy' but it still was a show to remember.
SashaS
23-8-2001
Macy Gray's 'The Id' is released September 17 on Sony
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